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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

How Soon is Now?

Pondering as I often do about what to post, I considered a snarky post about story elements I don't like (Chosen One's) so criminally vulgar.But I decided instead to talk about when to write and considered How Soon Is Now? Every time I procrastinate things turn sour but if I strike while the iron is hot and use as many cliches as possible things get done.

It may be that while I consider briefly what I will write about, an idea that comes to me (or is summoned), I usually just start pouring it all forth and am as surprised as the reader at what presents itself. This is how a rough draft gets done. You just sit down and hammer it all out.ThenCome back and do research, edit, formulate and magnify themes. I like historical's and fantasy's but don't believe I'll ever be afflicted with world builders disease because I only need to show you that part of the world that directly affects the story. You can't get hung up on research, the story is king.Who cares what they worship in the steaming jungles of Kamar-Lan-Pur, unless your protag is in the big black kettle and can recite their holiest of poems to delay the feast of 1,000 eyes.SoTo finish a book means getting to work on that now and not accepting the distractions and excuses that inevitably will come along.A whole host of projects are lining up and I have to prioritize.This was as much for myself as anyone.Leave the door open to your muse and it will come.AndA pair of reviews I greatly appreciate by Elizabeth Mueller at her Blog and at Mormon Mommy Writers thanks Elizabeth.

Agreed about the world-builder's disease. I know there is a lot of stuff going on in the background of my books in "the world" but I just don't bother with it until I have to, or someone asks me a question-- at which point, I kind of make it up and hope it was consistent, then go back and figure it out in my head. It all goes in a file, though, not in my books where it serves no purpose!

David J. West

David can’t remember a time he wasn’t writing. From
the primordial splash of a drowning
Atlantis to a pair of vigilantes' six-guns blasting raw justice in the
old west. From obsidian tipped arrows raining down on Cumorah’s slopes,
to crusaders'
broadswords sweeping over shadowy terrors, and on to the cold vacuum of
space and the birth of a new star, David is there, recording it all for
your edification and amusement.

Links in the Armor

LOST REALMS PRESS

Lost Realms Press

LOST REALMS PRESS

Lost Realms Press

Lost Realms Press

Space Eldritch II

Space Eldritch

WiDo Publishing

What I'm Reading

The Heroes, by Joe Abercrombie This Crooked Way, by James Enge The Arabian Nightmare, by Robert Irwin The Darkeness that Comes Before, by R. Scott Bakker Tides of War, by Steven Pressfield Night of Knives, by Ian C. Esselmont The Pirate King, by R. A. Salvatore Deadhouse Gates, by Steven Erikson El Borak, by Robert E. Howard Swords Aginst Death, by Fritz Leiber Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch Lord of the Silver Bow, by David Gemmell Bloodstone, by Karl Edward Wagner

Heroes of the Fallen Book Trailer

“An epic tale of valor and degeneracy where heroes are beset on every side by wicked schemers whose plots, like a flood, threaten to drown them all." (Daron D. Fraley, Author of The Chronicles of Gan: The Thorn)